Transparency International Bangladesh holds a press conference at its office in the capital on Sunday. — New Age photo

The Transparency International Bangladesh on Sunday censured MPs for turning Parliament into a mock puppet show.
In a Parliament watch report presented at a news conference TIB said that the MPs spent most of their time on praising the government and criticizing rival parties not represented in the House.
The study covers the declining performance of the current Parliament from its 2nd to the 6th session.
It found that there had been a 10 fold increase in blasting the parties which have no representations in Parliament and in praising the government leaving little time for legislative business.
The TIB study covered the proceedings of the House over 112 working days from July 2014 to June 2015 to reach the conclusions.
The study report reveals that the MPs blasted the unrepresented opposition parties 7,286 times and praised the government 7,500 times during the period.
In the immediate past Parliament, it said, that the opposition was blasted the opposition 804 times and the government was praised 599 times.
According to the study, MPs spent six per cent of time of the House on legislative business.
It, however, shows that the quorum crisis fell during the five sessions in question due to increased attendance by MPs.
It also shows that the leader of the house attended 83 per cent of the working days compared to 57 per cent of the leader of the in the name only opposition party.
It also shows that quorum crisis wasted 48 hours and 41 minutes of the second to the sixth session of the current Parliament. In other words, said the report, 26 minutes were wasted by the quorum crisis on each of the 112 working days.
In money terms the quorum crisis cost about Tk 28.86 lakh, it said.
MPs showed lack of interest in attending Parliament and many of them did not participate in the proceedings due to deficiency in parliamentary skills, said TIB executive director Iftekharuzzaman.
He said inclusive and credible elections alone could produce effective Parliaments.
He said that a fresh and inclusive election was expected.
He described the Jatiya Party as an opposition party in name only for playing a dual role, splitting its time as a partner of the ruling coalition and also as a domestic opposition parry in Parliament.
He said that the study found that the Speaker was a mute spectators as MPs resorted to un-parliamentary conduct using un-parliamentary expressions against the parties outside Parliament.
TIB programme manager (research and policy) Juliet Rosette and deputy programme manager Fatema Afroz and Morsheda Akhter presented the findings.
TIB deputy executive director Sumiya Khair and director (Research) Mohammad Rafiqul Hasan attended the news conference.